Computer networks consist of two or more computers which are connected together. A Local Area Network (or internal network) can consist of computers within a company, whereas a Wide Area Network can cover larger areas, such as several cities or even countries. The networks can be interconnected with cables, fibres and/or radio links.
The internet is an example of an internetworked wide area network. This worldwide network can be used for communication and information delivery and information retrieval. The open and common internet has grown phenomenally during the last few years and a large number of services for large and small user groups have developed on the internet. Major reasons for the rapid growth of the internet is the openness of the network technology and the possibility for almost everybody to produce their own content and services on the network with small resources. Thus, the internet allows also services which have a relatively very small but globally large enough user base.
There are also more closed, specialised networks in the world, such as the networks based mostly on telephone technology that are used by wireless communications devices. An example of this kind of network is the GSM cellular telephone network. Typically, the use of the networks and services on it, such as the Short Message Service (SMS), is limited to the customers of a certain telecom operator.
These specialised networks are used mostly for communications between two people as it is technically cumbersome to build general services on them, and different solutions are needed for the networks of different telecom operators. Because of this, only services for large user groups have been built on these networks, and thus there is no large group of information service producers as that of the internet.
Building a service to a network currently requires writing a traditional service program. Traditional programming is difficult, requires programming skills from the creator, and representing of the program in a certain exact form.
Visual programming systems are also complex and hard to use and are not very well suited for information delivery between networks of very different types. In a visual programming system, the program is created by combining rigid operations in form of graphic elements on the screen. Traditional visual programming systems require e.g. large graphic display devices and are not usable on small limited devices. These systems are used mostly for industrial process modelling applications.
The WO publication 9915959 is an example of this kind of solution, where a user can create multimedia programs in real time with a visual programming system.
Different networks work with differing principles and deliver information in different formats and forms. Communication between computers takes place according to certain rules, which are called protocols and there are many different protocols.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is one such protocol and it is widely used on the internet. The IP protocol handles packets of data and determines where to send the packets so that they will reach the correct destination. TCP is a transport protocol which builds a virtual connection between the sender and the receiver. The internet also uses other protocols built on top of the TCP/IP protocol, such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for electronic mail, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) for transferring web pages and DNS (Domain Name Service) for name and address queries on the network.
In the telephone network, a continuous connection is created on the logical level between the terminals and information is sent as a coded sound signal at a constant rate. There are a few standards for representing data and services have been built on top of the basic network, such as voice call, data call (in the ISDN or GSM network). Typically, the use of the network is charged by connection time.
On the internet, information is transmitted in small packets and at a speed required at a certain moment. There are many ways to present information on top of the basic technology. Typically, the use of the network is charged according to connection time, or amount of information transmitted internationally.
In the GSM Short Message network, information is sent as separate 160-character short messages by using the SMS standard. There is no continuous connection. Typically, the use of the network is charged according to the number of messages sent and the price for a single message can be high.
In Finland, online credit card checks are done via the X.25 network, which is an old networking technology and complex to attach to a modern network. X.25 is a primitive packet network, where the packet layer is used to share resources between several logically continuous telephone-network-like virtual connections.
Delivering information across these different networks is hard because the networks operate in different ways and the information has to be converted into a form (standard) that is suitable for the communications devices on the target network.
Networks can be interconnected with a gateway that converts information into the format required by another network. Automatic conversion works only with similar networks and services.
Because connecting different networks is hard to do, the access to the services of e.g. a GSM network is closed except to some few non-customised services targeted at large user groups, which someone sees as financially profitable to build by using expensive traditional methods.
These problems create needs that are awaiting solutions. Among others, there is a need for a method for delivering and converting information between different networks in a flexible way.
There is also a need for a system for managing an information delivery system that has a large group of information producers and users, like on the internet.
This invention describes an information delivery system which is connected to one or more communications networks. It comprises an information delivery server, which has information receiving modules for receiving messages from one or several networks and for converting that information to a suitable format for an information processing unit, an information processing unit which processes the queries according to their content, fetches the information requested, processes the information and builds replies to the queries, and information sending modules which send the replies to one or more networks and convert them to a format suitable for the receiver. The system also includes a user interface, which allows the creating and maintaining of services on the information delivery server from one or more terminals connected to the information delivery system.
Preferably, a routing module sends the replies to a suitable information sending module connected to a suitable network.
The information processing unit, which processes the queries according to their content, fetches the information requested from one or more networks or databases connected to the server.
According to the method of this invention intended to deliver information to one or more communications networks, queries are received from one or more networks, the queries are converted to a suitable form for further processing, they are processed in accordance with their content, the information requested in them is fetched and processed, replies are build to the queries and the replies are sent to the correct network after they have been converted to a format suitable for that network.
The invention also provides a service product to be used in the information delivery server of the invention. The service product can be used to build services on the information delivery server or to fetch, process or store information.
The following text lists some preferable implementations for the invention.
The operation of a service product can be described as a binary program module which is stored on the server or on the network. The operation program of the service can be presented as a list of selected operations (in some database) or in text form. For service providers it can be presented in a form, where they can add command parameters. For service users it is presented in a ready-to-use form.
The queries are processed with a program, which has been created as a command list in the server, as a list of simple operations. The program is stored into a database on the server or at another location on a connected network.
The service description is stored in a database and its operation program is presented and processed by the system. The service can be modified and/or created for a private and/or public and/or restricted user group by using parameters which are typed into input fields in the service program. The operation of a service can also be described by a binary program module, which is transferred to the information delivery server. The service can also be described by a program stored elsewhere on the network.
An Information delivery service, which is created on the service program, can consist of fetching information from the internet, e.g. fetching of a home page or a news page, or fetching information using some other internet protocol. A service can also fetch information from a database which is on the server or on a network.
The server has a number or an address on the network through which requests can be sent to it when a user wishes to use the services.
Different networks have different ways of finding the information delivery servers address, name or identity and for sending a request. The request can be sent from the GSM network as an SMS message, from an iMode device, from a computer connected to the internet using a www page, of through e-mail.
A major benefit of this invention is that the configuring services on the information delivery server is open to all users. In addition, the invention offers a simple way to create services, e.g. with a programming list interface as described.
The reply can be delayed in some functions by a suitable time to make unauthorised use of borrowed communications devices harder.
In the following, the invention is described with figures which are not meant to restrict the invention.